


Dereliction and Duty

by AceQueenKing



Category: Hellsing
Genre: Discussion of death and aging, Gen, Offers to Turn, Old Age, Temptation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-09 09:24:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16447181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceQueenKing/pseuds/AceQueenKing
Summary: Walter's hand shakes. It’s a quick quiver, nothing major; the china teacup rattles on its saucer in an ominous warning, but not a drop is spilled.But it does not go unnoticed.“Oh ho,” Alucard says, leering as he sips from his own cup, though it is filled with a more profane liquid. “Losing your grip, old man.”





	Dereliction and Duty

**Author's Note:**

  * For [disgruntled_owl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/disgruntled_owl/gifts).



Walter's hand shakes.

It’s a quick quiver, nothing major; the china teacup rattles on its saucer in an ominous warning, but not a drop is spilled. But it does not go unnoticed.

“Oh ho,” Alucard says, leering as he sips from his own cup, though it is filled with a more profane liquid. “Losing your grip, old man.”

“Shut your mouth,” Walter says, squinting at him, annoyed all the more for it being Alucard who points it out. They’re not-quite-friends but not-quite-not, anymore; several decades of companionship and the same priority (Integra, _always_ Integra: on this they agree) have mellowed their once-eternal rivalry into a strange sort of friendship.

But to see Alucard, eternally young, rub salt in the ravages of age is distasteful.

“I could fix it for you,” Alucard says, preternaturally beautiful. He can see why Integra loves him; he is a strong and clever protector, even if he is a bit rude. Walter supposes he is not one to judge. He, too, has no family. It just seems a bit sad that perhaps Integra, too, will never have children. She is so clever a girl. He would love to have seen the next generation of the Hellsing family.

Even if it’s becoming more and more likely he’ll never live long enough to see much of their story.

He lays out the weapon he’s fashioning for the newest recruit, Alucard’s fledgling child. It’s a large thing, and he strains to lift the heavy anti-tank gun over the table. Alucard, being Alucard, does not help, merely staring at him with gimlet eyes and a hungry mouth.

“Well?” Alucard says, putting his feet up on the table. It’ll make marks, and he’ll have to clean it later. Walter squints over his shoulder as he adjusts the scope on it.

“Well, _what_?” He frowns into his work, aware of all the wrinkles that must display when he does so; he has always detested Alucard’s method of talking in riddles. If only the vampire saved that for Integra…

“Is the answer not obvious?” Alucard purrs. He holds out a hand, delicately throws down one of his gloves. "Drink my blood, Walter. Drink, and you could never again be claimed by the specter of death or the ravages of age. Drink, and you shall truly become one of us. You are a hunter, like me, Walter. You could drink the blood of your own choosing. You could become eternal. You could be like _us_.”

“Become a fledgling?” Walter sniffs. “Of _yours_?”

“Of course.” Alucard pulls off the other glove, runs a vampire’s nail over the vein, rich and red. “You should be honored. I have taken few children.”

He stares at Alucard’s wrist for a moment, his hands frozen mid-calibration. The offer is not without temptation; he wants to be valuable to Integra, to fight for her until the very the last moment, and becoming one of Alucard's spawn would allow him to be useful longer. How many years of death-dealing does the Angel of Death have left within him? Ten, perhaps, or twenty? To take the offer would be to never retire, to live forever with Seras and Alucard as kin. And that, he thinks, would not be such a bad thing, but for Integra’s death. That…he does not wish to live to see; the thought too painful to even contemplate. And he knows, as he knows the sun and the moon and the powers of heaven and hell, that Integra will not turn.

And neither, thus, can he.

“It is a tempting offer, but I must decline, for the moment.” He goes back to the scope, does his best to ignore the sinking pit that his stomach has become, while Alucard laughs.

“Have it your way.” He shakes his head, pulls the gloves back on. “You humans are so pig-headed, sometimes.”

“And I’ll die that way, thank you,” he says, though winning this argument feels absolutely pyrrhic at best.

Alucard throws his head back and cackles again, and Walter wonders if there ever was a time when Alucard was truly human: nothing about him is normal, and never has been in the time he’s known him. Walter's not Integra, blessed with her ability to master his mercurial moods. He wonders if she will grow strange when it's Alucard who will be her primary protector, not Walter: will she truly be human than, any longer? Or some odd hybrid? 

“When I die…” Walter says, putting down the tools for a moment. “You will take care of Integra, won’t you?”

Alucard stops laughing; he is suddenly serious, gimlet eyes probing with all their might. “She is the master.”

“ _Say it_ ,” Walter hisses; Vampires are tricky creatures, but he knows Alucard’s one weakness: he upholds his oaths. It is the only reason he has ever allowed the vampire to stay in their home so long, to allow the vampire to embrace the girl more sacred to him than anything: a not-quite daughter, but the closest he has.

“I will protect Countess Integra Van Hellsing and her descendants always,” Alucard says, grinning wildly. “And I’d do it whether you wanted me to or not.”

“Then I will die satisfied,” Walter says, going back to adjusting Sera’s weapon. It’s all he wanted; the knowledge that Integra would live on protected and strong. But getting it doesn’t quite make him feel happy; he’s all too aware of what he’ll miss; the parts of the story he’ll never see.

He drops one of the screws as he’s putting the final touches on the magnificent machine. Walter's eyes water in frustration, but for once in his eternal afterlife, Alucard says nothing as Walter fishes it out and screws it in.


End file.
